The invention relates to an aiming device for pistols, comprising a rear sight and front sight, the front sight having a luminous dot on a side facing the eye, and the rear sight has a luminous mark and a depression which accommodates a contour of the front sight, an inner contour comprises a base line and two side lines which are generally vertical.
With aiming devices such as these, the azimuth is adjusted during the aiming process by making the upper edge of the front sight coincident with the upper edge of the rear sight (xe2x80x9caligned front sightxe2x80x9d), and the direction is adjusted by comparing the width of the unobstructed gaps on both sides between the side lines and the contour of the front sight. The luminous mark is intended to assist the person firing the weapon when the light is poor or the person firing the weapon has poor eyesight.
Adjustment of the azimuth requires a rear sight with a broad upper edge which gives the appearance of a line covering the recess. A broad rear sight such as this conceals the majority of the target, however, so that the front sightxe2x80x94and hence also the cut-out in the rear sightxe2x80x94must be relatively large in order to be sufficiently visible. Lateral aiming on the basis of the unobstructed gaps is also very tedious when visibility is poor.
In order to assist aiming in poor visibility, or to improve the hit probability, it is known from practice for two further luminous dots to be applied to the rear sight, with a certain lateral offset, which are at the same height as the luminous dot on the front sight when the azimuth aim is correct. For lateral aiming, the latter must be precisely in the center of the connecting line between the two luminous dots on the rear sight. This is a very difficult task for the eye and, above all, it takes time. Furthermore, the two luminous dots are brighter overall than the luminous dot on the front sight and, in addition, are closer to the eye, so that they mask out the latter, as well as the target when the lighting is dim.
An aiming device of this generic type is known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,192,632, in which a vertical line is provided on the rear sight, under the luminous dot on the front sight, in order to assist lateral aiming. However, this does not help with azimuth aiming.
The object of the invention is to improve aiming in poor visibility, both with regard to target acquisition and with regard to aiming the weapon at the target.
According to the invention, the object is achieved wherein a rear sight has a trapezoidal external contour, with the inclined trapezoid sides forming an (possibly rounded) acute angle at their upper ends with the side lines (side walls) of an inner recess, and wherein the rear sight has a luminous dot centrally located under the recess, which is located precisely under a first luminous dot on the front sight when the pistol is being aimed.
The trapezoidal external contour conceals much less of the target. The second luminous dot, which is likewise circular, is aimed such that it is located with a slight separation precisely underneath the first luminous dot. The interaction of the two circular luminous dots not only simplifies lateral aiming but, surprisingly, also allows quicker but nonetheless accurate aiming in azimuth. There is thus no longer any need for a broad rear sight. Thus, overall, the aiming device can be designed to be smaller, which also simplifies intuitive aiming owing to the shorter distance from the barrel axis.
In a preferred embodiment the luminous dots, both the first and the second, may be formed by a capsule containing a luminous substance, and the width and height of the front sight are only slightly larger than the diameter of the capsule which may be a small tritium tube, which is known by this name in the specialist world. The capsule is sheathed and held securely in this way. Thanks to the aiming function of the two luminous dots in poor visibility, a small vertical distance between them has no disturbing effect. Since the second luminous dot is under the first and is also under the target, it cannot mask out either one or the other.
The luminous dots need not be large, so that the rear sight and the front sight may also be designed to be small. In this case, the second luminous dot may be smaller than the first luminous dot and in the same ratio as their distances from the eye. The two luminous dots then appear to be of equal size to the eye, thus allowing faster aiming owing to the physiology of the human eye. Alternatively or in a complementary manner, the second luminous dot may also be less luminous than the first.